After days of braving the rising mercury level while addressing public rallies and walking through the dusty roads, political leaders chose to engage themselves in round table discussions on their parties' performance in the 224 assembly segments.
The BJP camp appeared buoyed by the predictions of positive trends in the exit polls. The mood in Congress camp appeared to be a mixed one with earlier pre-poll surveys giving it an edge, while later ones reflecting a better pitch for the BJP.
Congress workers were, however, optimistic of the party romping home. As for the JD(S) workers it is a case of hoping for a hung verdict to help the party to catapult to power through a coalition. The more optimistic ones were confident of the JD(S) pulling through this mid-term polls.
As party leaders immersed themselves in getting a feedback from grassroot workers and constituencies in-charge about their candidates performance, many relied on media reports and secondary feedback to gauge their performance.
Tension ran high in some of the key constituencies like Shikaripura where BJP's chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa was fighting hard to retain his seat.
His rival Bangarappa of the SP is giving him a tough fight. Others are hoping that their strategies would work in delivering verdict in their favour.
With the caste factor expected to work in some of the segments, it is not just political leaders but caste leaders as well who are waiting anxiously for the results.
With parties counting on their traditional bastions to add to their seat tally, anxiety is running high among many candidates as the delimitation exercise had resulted in these bastions disappearing from the electoral map and many seeing an addition of fresh voters while still others hoping that a new terrain would not crush their hopes of victory.
While some of the parties counted on their charismatic leaders to once again unleash their magic, still others hoped that debutants would inflict a crushing blow to titans to ring true old astrological predictions.
Interestingly, a portal has also announced a reward for the astrologer with the correct predictions on the electoral prospects of party and the winning candidates.
Meanwhile about 64.23 per cent of the 1.17 crore electorate cast their ballot on Thursday in 69 constituencies in the third and final phase of the Karnataka assembly elections, election department sources said.
Chief electoral officer M N Vidyashankar said polling was peaceful in the polling held across eight north Karnataka districts.
As many as 699 aspirants, including KPCC president M Mallikarjuna Kharge and former chief minister N Dharam Singh, were in the fray in the final phase.
In the first phase 66 per cent voting was recorded for 89 seats followed by 67.8 in the second phase on May 16 in 66 constituencies. Counting would be held on May 25.
